(Ascendant, Leo with Venus and Ceres conjuncted and rising
in Leo; Sun in Virgo; Moon in Scorpio; Mercury in Libra; Mars conjunct
Uranus in Cancer; Saturn in Sagittarius in H5; Jupiter in Gemini; Neptune
in Aries; Pluto in Taurus)

Maria Montessori was a medical doctor who evolved into a
transformational educator. The so-called Montessori method (signaling
Virgo and the seven ray) is essentially apractical and sequential approach.. The orderly use of concrete
methods and materials was considered vital in her method of education.

The Leo Ascendant, with nurturing Ceres and light-filled Venus
rising, and responsible Saturn in the fifth house of children, indicates
her soul mission—to bring illumination to the minds and hearts of children—(Leo,
the “Will to Illumine). Behind her practical and concrete seventh ray
methods, one can feel the expansive presence (second ray Jupiter in
second ray Gemini) of the Ray of the Teacher—the second ray of “Love-Wisdom”.

Establishing
lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep
us out of war.

Never help a child
with a task at which he feels he can succeed.

The first idea the
child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil.

The greatest sign
of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children
are now working as if I did not exist."
(Leo Ascendant)

To aid life, leaving
it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.

What is a scientist?…
We give the name scientist to the type of man who has felt experiment
to be a means guiding him to search out the deep truth of life, to lift
a veil from its fascinating secrets, and who, in this pursuit, has felt
arising within him a love for the mysteries of nature, so passionate
as to annihilate the thought of himself.
(Venus in Leo)

The teacher must
derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena.
In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an active,
influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific
curiosity and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes
to observe. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer:
the activity must lie in the phenomenon.

On the importance
of observation for the teacher, Montessori continued: “The observation
of the way in which the children pass from the first disordered movements
to those which are spontaneous and ordered—this is the book of
the teacher; this is the book which must inspire her actions; it is
the only one in which she must read and study if she is to become a
real educator.”

Discipline must
come through liberty.... We do not consider an individual disciplined
only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and
as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.

An educational
method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the
child to a conquest of liberty. That is to say, his training must be
such as shall help him to diminish as much as possible the social bonds
which limit his activity.

The first idea
that the child must acquire, in order to be actively disciplined, is
that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator
lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility
and evil with activity.

If an educational
act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help
toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary
rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition
of arbitrary tasks.

If we can, when
we have established individual discipline, arrange the children, sending
each one to his own place, in order, trying to make them understand
the idea that thus placed they look well, and that it is a good thing
to be thus placed in order, that it is a good and pleasing arrangement
in the room, this ordered and tranquil adjustment of theirs—then
their remaining in their places, quiet and silent, is the result of
a species of lesson, not an imposition. To make them understand the
idea, without calling their attention too forcibly to the practise,
to have them assimilate a principle of collective order—that is
the important thing.
(Uranus in Cancer in 12th house)

If help and salvation
are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children
are the makers of men.
(Saturn in Sagittarius in 5th house opposition Jupiter in Gemini in
11th)

We teachers can
only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.
(Sun in Virgo)

There is ... in
every child a painstaking teacher, so skilful that he obtains identical
results in all children in all parts of the world. The only language
men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no
one can teach them anything!

If education is
always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission
of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of
man’s future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if
the individual’s total development lags behind?

“Free the
child's potential, and you will transform him into the world”

“One test
of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the
child.”

“We especially
need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic,
but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.”
(Venus in Leo conjunct Ascendant)

“We cannot
know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is
just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That
humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the
sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of
religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a
flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless
it helps a child to open up himself to life.”

“We cannot
create observers by saying "observe," but by giving them the
power and the means for this observation and these means are procured
through education of the senses”
(Mars in Cancer conjunct Uranus)

“To aid life,
leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.”

“The teacher
must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural
phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer:
the activity must lie in the phenomenon.”

“The greatness
of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost
mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that
education must start from birth.”

“And so we
discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but
that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human
being.”

“... education
is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired
not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.”

MARIA
MONTESSORI, MD

(1870-1952)

THE EARLY YEARS

Maria Montessori
was always a little ahead of her time. At age thirteen, against the
wishes of her father but with the support of her mother, she began to
attend a boys' technical school. After seven years of engineering she
began premed and, in 1896 became a physician. In her work at the University
of Rome psychiatric clinic Dr. Montessori developed an interest in the
treatment of special needs children and, for several years, she worked,
wrote, and spoke on their behalf.

In 1907 she was
given the opportunity to study "normal" children, taking charge
of fifty poor children of the dirty, desolate streets of the San Lorenzo
slum on the outskirts of Rome. The news of the unprecedented success
of her work in this Casa dei Bambini "House of Children" soon
spread around the world, people coming from far and wide to see the
children for themselves. Dr. Montessori was as astonished as anyone
at the realized potential of these children:

Supposing I said
there was a planet without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and
yet the inhabitants - doing nothing but living and walking about - came
to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would
you not think I was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful
as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality.
It is the child's way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns
everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so passes
little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the
paths of joy and love.

Invited to the USA
by Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and others, Dr. Montessori
spoke at Carnegie Hall in 1915. She was invited to set up a classroom
at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, where spectators
watched twenty-one children, all new to this Montessori method, behind
a glass wall for four months. The only two gold medals awarded for education
went to this class, and the education of young children was altered
forever.

During World War
II Dr. Montessori was forced into exile from Italy because of her antifascist
views and lived and worked in India. It was here that she developed
her work Education for Peace, and developed many of the ideas taught
in her training courses today. She was twice nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize.

In Rome Dr. Montessori
developed the Montessori program for the elementary years for the child
from 6-12. She began, as elementary classes do today, with the required
curriculum of Italy of her time. She adapted the traditional teacher-taught
subjects in the arts and science so that the children could use materials
to guide their open-ended research and to follow their individual interests,
working to a much higher level than was previously (and is presently!)
thought possible for children of this age. The elementary child, when
allowed to work independently instead of being taught in groups led
by a teacher, and in classes with a mixed age group of 6-12- year-old
students inspiring and teaching each other, masters academic subjects
usually not taught until middle or high school.

In the 1940's, inspired
by the amazing potential of children realized in the early years, Dr.
Montessori stated that age three was too late to begin to support the
work and development of children. In 1947 the Montessori Assistants
to Infancy program was begun in Rome. This was a 3-year, full-time program
which is still taught today in several countries. For an overview of
Montessori work at this age, see: Montessori 0-3

Since her death
an interest in Dr. Montessori's methods have continued to spread throughout
the world. Her message to those who emulated her was always to turn
one's attention to the child, to "follow the child". It is
because of this basic tenet, and the observation guidelines left by
her, that Dr. Montessori's ideas will never become obsolete.

Many people, hearing
of the high academic level reached by students in this system of education,
miss the point and think that Montessori math manipulative (as an example)
is all there is to the Montessori method. It is easy to acquire materials
and to take short courses to learn to use them, but the real value of
Montessori takes long and thorough training for the adult.

The potential of
the child is not just mental, but is revealed only when the complete
"Montessori method" is understood and followed. The child's
choice, practical work, care of others and the environment, and above
all the high levels of concentration reached when work is respected
and not interrupted, reveal a human being that is superior not only
academically, but emotionally and spiritually, a child who cares deeply
about other people and the world, and who works to discover a unique
and individual way to contribute. This is the essence of real "Montessori"
work today.

Maria Montessori
biography
Dr. Maria Montessori developed revolutionary teaching techniques by
observing the way children learn. Her methods remain effective ninety
years later.
believed that "…all children are endowed with [the] capacity
to 'absorb' culture" and, if exposed to things could learn them
without feeling like they were being taught. Her observation was that
in this way they learned happily and without tiring. It started with
reading, and the astonishing fact that many children with proper access
to resources would easily learn to read at the age of four. Then they
expanded the learning to a vast array of other areas from botany to
mathematics and more. The children learned spontaneously and with creativity.

She believed that
children learned through exposure to cultural activities. She said that
the teacher's role was not to teach, but to prepare and arrange a series
of learning opportunities which each child can move through instinctively.

was born in 1870
in Alcona, Italy to an educated, but not wealthy, family. She defied
her father and the conservative Italian society and studied science,
becoming the first female physician in Italy. Her work was mostly with
the poor and she saw in these children vast potential, and understood
that intelligence is common, but only uncommonly tapped. She was an
altruistic person, speaking across Italy about women's rights and child
labor law reforms.

Montessori was appointed
Director of a branch of the University of Rome, an asylum for "deficient
and insane" children. Children who had been previously confined
to their rooms and deprived of attention and stimulation were brought
out into the daylight, so to speak. The staff was instructed to speak
to them with respect, and they were provided with purposeful activities,
including learning to care for themselves, and educational pursuits.

Montessori drew
on the studies of the "Wild Boy of Aveyron" who was found
in a forest in the 1800s. He had been without human interaction for
about ten years. Eighteenth century physician Jean Itard studied the
child at length, considering him raw material and prime for studies
about the relative importance of nature vs. nurture. When the boy failed
to learn to speak and do other basic functions, Itard speculated that
there are learning periods in human development when growth potential
is prime. He believed that the Wild Boy had missed the prime window
for learning speech. He believed that it was essential to observe the
educational process carefully to determine the best times to present
learning opportunities.

Montessori agreed
and this concept became the backbone of her methods. Through careful
observation of her mentally challenged children she was able to determine
what worked best with them and when. It was easy to see that development
stages were different for each child and optimum learning occurs when
the child is ready. But the teacher must be ready, as well, and therefore
always watching for signs it is time to present more material. In two
years time some of her "deficient" students were able to pass
standard tests for Italian School Children. She was lauded for this
achievement but replied that public schools should be able to get far
better results, then, with her methods, than with their traditional
ones.

The government didn't
allow her that chance, so she started to work with poor day care children
too young to attend school. These children were examples of the worst
poverty can bring out of people, and at first Montessori doubted her
methods could work under these conditions. However, she gave them a
try and her successes were even greater than with the retarded children.
These children did not need to be prodded to participate as the hospitalized
children did. They were eager to learn and begged for more. They were
fascinated by numbers and were adding four and five digit numbers at
the ages of four and five. Their enthusiasm was so great that Montessori
spent many nights awake into the wee hours making new learning tools
for them. Her style of mathematics blocks and tiles are still in use
today.

During the time
at these "Children's Houses" she quit her work as a physician
and began to work exclusively advocating for children's educational
opportunities. Montessori observed that if children have an orderly
place to work and learn they take great pride in it and care well for
the learning tools. They are able to sit quietly and learn for long
periods of time- far longer than in normal everyday settings. She had
carpenters build the first ever child sized school chairs and desks
to make them comfortable for learning. She didn't make them do all their
learning at desks, however. She created seating areas on the floor with
rugs and pillows, and standing learning stations as well.

Montessori taught
her methods in many countries including Africa, Sri Lanka, India, and
various parts of Europe. Anna Freud, Jean Piaget, Alfred Adler, and
Erik Erikson studied under Montessori and went on to make their own
contributions to the understanding of education.

Montessori's methods
have been repeatedly supported by research into child development. Unfortunately
they do not work well if adopted piecemeal into other systems, and this
is how they are most often used in public schools.